Man’s Search for Meaning

Dan’s Masters program had to read Man’s Search for Meaning this month and all the spouses were invited to do the same thing. Then we had a dinner last week to discuss the book.

I have read it before but it was so good to have a refresher! I couldn’t believe what a perfect time it was for me to read the book. I related to some of the emotions AND got a lot of insight into some things that I needed to add into my life. There were so many quotes and stories that I loved but these were my favorite ones-

There are things which must cause you to loose your reason or you have none to loose.

The truth- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal which man can aspire.

Suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the “size” of human suffering is absolutely relative.

But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.

What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.

There are only two races of men – the “race” of a decent man and the “race” of the indecent man.

Step for step I progressed, until I became human again.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.

Each man is questioned by life and only he can answer for his own life.

Live as if you were living already for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now. 

No one can be fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.

I have realities in my past, not only of work done and love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.

I felt such power reading his words and story. I love that he had found an eternal truth that we have to find meaning for ourselves and can only at for ourselves. But that we also are in charge of our thoughts and actions and no one else is.

In the class discussion we talked about poverty. Poverty for the poor is easy to define but we talked about Poverty of the Rich. It is SO true! How many times do we hear about the rich not feeling fulfilled or full of joy?

It is a cycle of:

• the lack of time – no enough time in the day
• the lack of attention – cannot focus
• the lack of capacity – too much on our plate

How to manage our attention -

• Live in the present – don’t divide our thinking and our feeling and our doing
• Meditation
• Crafts/Hobbies
• Date Nights
• Rituals
• Being Grateful

How to manage our time -

• Time is like money in that it is
• consumable
• borrowed – from projects, relationships, and self (stay up late, no work out, eating crappy)
• saveable
• delegate
• prioritize
• comes with interests
• Do better with our time-
• cycle match with your spouse and kids (morning person vs night owl)
• schedule unstructured time

Capacity

• Too much of a good thing
• Too many commitments

How to manage our capacity

• Less is more
• How many times do we say yes without really thinking what we are committing to?
• Getting caught up in the thick of thin things?

Slack=Agency

• attention gives us ability
• ample time gives us space
• capacity gives us joy and meaning